Category: Holidays

I have been on a bit of a Americana/patriotic kick this spring into summer. So, it was fitting as I was setting the table for our Flag Day Tea to also add a bit of Americana to our china hutch…

Here is the dining room table all set for a Flag Day tea! We had a lovely time visiting, eating (of course!) and just enjoying the time together.

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Decorating the Hutch

The last time I decorated our china hutch was for Valentine’s Day, so most of plates and items on the hutch have changed. I kept just a couple of the pink roses salad plates, to add their “red” to this patriotic look.

I brought in a couple of the harvest plates we have made by J. Broadhurst The Constable Series Bicentennial 1776-1976 for their pinkish red. For the blue, I looked around for other plates in our corner round cabinet.

I can’t remember if I found the hand-painted plate with blackberries on it or my mother-in-law did, but it is lovely. Blackberries are so summery to me! It is a true antique made in Austria by Imperial above a small crown, RSL below the crown, and Empire inside an oval with Austria written below all. It also has its number: 4622 24.

In California, the blackberries would ripen in late August into September, each year along the American River, in the suburbs of Sacramento and in the foothills of the Gold Rush country. When I was in college, my friend Rob was on the crew team at CSU Sacramento. We also worked togethere at Swensen’s Ice Cream factory and restaurant in Citrus Heights. So he had access to borrowing canoes and rowing boats, and we’d go gather buckets of blackberries for his mom to bake pies and for topping ice cream, etc. BUT, working at Swensen’s, we could go in and make ourselves (and everyone else working) blackberries milkshakes!!!

Oh, they were soooo good! :)’

The large blue Mason Crabtree & Evelyn teacup plate had a pretty large teacup that went with it, but it was broken soon after I bought it. So, here I’ve paired it with a realistic rose teacup from my collection, and they bring the RWB look together.

I also pulled out this Americana bread plate. It’s fun to see what works together! For our recent Pinterest Challenge we put together a patriotic themed vignette and I used a pair of Japanese-American figurines in it. Here I’ve placed my husband’s little bicentennial figurines.

I’ve shared them before and my mother-in-law has a set at her house. I think that Gini bought them for Charles and his sister Jodi back when they toured Philadelphia around 1976.

Mr. Ethereal also has a reproduction (non-working) wooden rifle from the period. Perfect back in the day for a kid to play with but also isn’t a real weapon.

Here is the whole hutch.I really love all the subtle red, white and blue displayed in it!

I had forgotten all about this sweet little blue and white kitten teapot drip catcher until I was looking underneath in the china hutch. There she was inside a small bowl just waiting to come out and play!

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Happy Independence Day!!!!

Happy 4th of July to y’all or Happy belated 4th, if you are reading this after our American Independence Day! This has been a fun summer full of patriotic posts for me this year. I don’t have a lot of red or blue chinaware but what I do have, I love to bring out for the summer holidays.

On the buffet shelf, I kept the silverplate tea tray in its tarnished state and also the croched boy which my father’s mother Rosa tatted back in the 1930’s or 1940’s, is my guess. I have quite a few of her crocheted pieces and I love them all.

Just adding a simple patriotic napkin was all that was added here, with new china pieces of course!

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And for all of my friends named Debbie/Debra/Debbee

Here is one of the few bee items I have courtesy my husband’s aunt who owned this teapot before me. It is really cute and I’d love to get a few more bee things but Mr. Ethereal wants me to pare down what is already here. 🙂

But tea towels I always need, so I’ll have to search for some bee ones! 😉

My self-imposed year of buying nothing new was 2022. The little Japanese-American figurines were about it for purchases that year.

There’s always a way around that, though… 😉 Enjoy!!!!

Happy Independence Day, y’all!!!!